Boots-£29.97 worth of baby 'Little Me' sets for £4.98 and 539 Boots points! [CLOSED]

Lara

jellyhead wrote:

hi lara, could you give me more info about the shoeboxes? spud's nursery school did them but school doesn't, and nursery stopped doing it. i've got more little me sets than i will use for my baby, probably. have given some to charity shops, some are for new babies due this year and some will go to the school fayre, but i like the idea of shoeboxes, it will probably do more good than giving them to the school fayre to be sold for peanuts to people who don't need them as much as others. there are people who've bought little me sets who don't know what to do with them - they just bought them for the points profit - shoeboxes are an excellent idea, or if you can't afford the postage what about giving them to your local oxfam shop?

Hi jellyhead - my friend is local rep hence I've helped out for last five years now. Maximum boxes I've managed to do was 36 and that was year before last! (www.samaritanspurse.org)
You need a shoebox, around men's size 7/8 or ladies 6/7. Any shoe shop will be more than happy to give you empty boxes. Cover it in Christmas paper including the lid. Loads of hassle but you'll pleased you made the effort at the end. Some of the children then take this off and put up on the nearest wall to them as posters. They especially like shiny paper as they can see themselves in it!
Flannel, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, brush/comb are the necessity together with hat/scarf/gloves as the countries are soooo cold and these keep them warm. Also always include a soft toy, doesn't matter how small. It might seem pretty boring to us but these kids have to share everything, including a toothbrush, if the family even have one! They love to have their own.
For girls I always include any hair clips/slides etc etc. and a toy. Older girls I also include deodorant and nail varnish/makeup bag (which can double as a toilet bag), make up and nail varnish remover PADS (Boots - use your points;)). No glass/bottles are allowed so no shampoo etc.
For boys they like anything to do with football but I always put a tennis ball or one of those small bouncy balls in ALL boxes. Remember these children don't have toys to play with & a ball means they can play on their own or together. Older boys have deodorant as well.
Paper/pens/pencils, coloured crayons, rubber, ruler, rubber, pencil case etc. These are luxury items and all the children enjoy drawing and making pictures.
For babies I just make up a box like I would for a newborn through to year old. Flannel, baby soap, baby toothpaste/toothbrush (for when they're older)dummy, babygro, bodysuit, hat/scarf/mittens - literally anything you would buy a baby here. I always try to fit something in for the Mum aswell;), i.e. comb/flannel/toothbrush/paste/deodorant/sweets. Last year I even managed to squeeze a warm baby jacket with hood in aswell! (M&S online!)
It is surprising how much you can get in the box - practice makes perfect and I try to beat the number of items in every year! LOL

I always think of what I would give children of the age group here and try to fit that into the box. No books with writing on or any toys relating to war or religion are allowed.

Look at Tesco extra value, flannels 5 for £1, toothbrushes 23p for twin pack, five bars of soap for 22p. I split the soap and put a bar in a small polythene bag with the flannel wrapped round it.
Toothpaste from Superdrug - 29p for a huge tube. I do buy childrens toothpaste for babies/toddlers though.
Asda for pens/paper/erasers/pencils/pencil sharpener - they were the cheapest last year.
Poundshops - look in there for combs. I bought 20 combs for £1 - that's brilliant.
Peacocks & Matalan - check them out for flannels and hats etc.

I start collecting in the January sales onwards and today in Boots picked up a double pack of dummies with case for £1 instead of over £2 (got triple points aswell). So that's two dummies at 50p and they have their own little case to keep clean.
Sweets (must be with good sell by date) - in every box but NO chocolate. Customs in the different countries remove them - apparently because of foot and mouth! The milk in the chocolate might be infected - how stupid!!

Remember it is the necessity not the quality, so a brown comb for everyone doesn't matter. They just like their own comb. A knitted hat/scarf and mittens - if it keeps them warm then brilliant. I got a load of hat/scarf/mitten sets from M&S in their superb sale for only £1 - not bad eh?

Whoops sorry this is a long post and off topic I suppose! Well at least I did mention Boots because there are a lot of items you can get in there including a small packets of baby rusks etc to put in.

I love doing these boxes and because the children have so little it just makes you feel very humble to pack a box and wonder who got it and hope they liked it. I've seen a video/pictures afterwards of some of the children opening their boxes with such delight. Last year I put a toy mobile phone in one of mine and my friend was showing me pictures recently of some of the children opening the toys our area had sent and there was a picture of a little girl with this bright red phone up to her ear! They knew it was my box by the paper and I was the only one who had included a musical mobile phone - I can still see her smiling face now. The area rep and helpers have to go through ALL the boxes to check everything is OK and in mint condition aswell as adding anything that is not in it. You'd be surprised by how many that don't put in flannel and soap because they think it is boring.

Anything else please pm and I'll help. .

Sam_Spends_Too_Much

jellyhead wrote:

she's wrong - we're all getting our gift sets at 3 for 2 but it has to be particular gift sets, it seems that old sets that might be out on clearance sale aren't included. post number 72 on page 8 of this thread has a list of those included. if your boots store has those sets, take 3 to the till (3 of the same price, it's cheaper that way - if you buy 2 at 14.99 and one at 9.99 you actually pay more than if you're buying 3 at 14.99) and make her go through the whole transaction, see the price the till asks you to pay at the end of the transaction - it should be £4.98 for the 9.99 sets (or £3.98 if you have the ten percent off voucher) or 7-ish for the 14.99 sets (£5.98 if you have the ten percent voucher), with over 500 points awarded.

Thanks, I only picked up one of the items on the list. Got 3 of the sleep lullaby gift sets (with the teddy and blanket in them) for various friends but typically these aren't included. I also picked up a lot of Humphreys corner goodies. A lovely cot light for only £6, baby Jack bath set for £3.75 from £15, trio of toys gift set for £3.75, Lotties Vanity Case for £3.75 instead of £12. Couple of things went thro at the wrong price as well so made them go down list and refund the money :rolleyes: All in all a good days spending and made over £15 on my advantage card :T

chardonnay_2

thanks so much for this will try to see if i can find any

jellyhead

lara don't worry about it being a bit off topic - we're all making a profit, being paid to take these gift sets away from boots, i'm sure i'm not the only one to be giving some to charity/school etc. and thinking of others. i really enjoyed reading your last post and i hope kids somewhere will love the aroma bear as much as we do, they're soooo cute, really lovely, can't wait to make up shoeboxes with them :-)

by the way, the new girl toys in mcdonalds happy meals look fantastic. the boys ones are not so good, look at mcdonalds website. the girls ones are totally spies and include a denim strap watch, a purse, a make-up compact and a flashing necklace. lots of kids have too much, or eat there too often so they don't want the toy and just leave it on the table. if you ask the person cleaning tables they usually have a stash of extra toys in the cleaning cupboard that they've taken off the trays before binning the rubbish. might be worth looking at :-)

emujuice

Wooohooo!!!!
Got some little me sets for my sister, i didn't quite clear the shelf, but there was only one aroma bear, and I kind of wanted one for myself...oh well!

the staff were increadibly helpful, I got some photos printed, and asked to pay up front to get my triple points, which, somehow, when bought with the little me sets saved me an extra 2 pounds cash and gave me 300 points

thanks everyone for all their help on this (and the toothbrushes!) it was great to finally track some down.

bylromarha

kaneaj1 wrote:

I take your point, but I was considering taking them back in 3's but rather than giving them back 3 @ £14.99 for example, I wondered what would happen if you handed back 2 @£14.99 along with 1 @ £9.99 for a refund.

Someone pointed out that if you bought different priced sets as your 3 it seemed to work out a more expensive way of purchasing (not hugely, I think it was approx £1.00 ish difference), so I wondered if you would 'profit' by having them refunded as mixed price batches of 3.

Probably won't bother anyhow as they need the receipt to refund, & I wouldn't want to risk losing all those lovely points :eek: (my main reason for purchasing), as although I could conveniently forget to take my boots card with me, the card number is printed on the receipt & it only takes one jobsworth at the tills......................

Kerry :beer:

It really does depend on who does your refund. E.g. the Boots in town only has one person who does refunds and she scours the reciept to ensure your refund means that Boots get back what they gave you. I returned something once which was on the same receipt as a 500 point bonus for £25 baby spend...she queried the extra points with me as to whether they were bought during triple points and why I'd been awarded them. I'm not grumpy about it though as I think she's doing her job properly.

If you go to any of the 4 retail park shops out of town, they don't look at the reciept at all. I have had to point out 2 for 1's when returning items...I'm too honest to accept Boots giving me money in error...they don't seem to look at the points total either. So if your conscience is not bothered, you could easily return the gift sets and probably get them refunded without them spotting the 3 for 2 and keep the 500 points. Points equvalent to the refund will be removed from your total points.

However, they will demand the advantage card. I genuinely left mine at home when asking for a refund and have been told to return when I have the card with me. Is this in the T + C's for refunds?!

kaneaj1

bylromarha wrote:

It really does depend on who does your refund. E.g. the Boots in town only has one person who does refunds and she scours the reciept to ensure your refund means that Boots get back what they gave you. I returned something once which was on the same receipt as a 500 point bonus for £25 baby spend...she queried the extra points with me as to whether they were bought during triple points and why I'd been awarded them. I'm not grumpy about it though as I think she's doing her job properly.

If you go to any of the 4 retail park shops out of town, they don't look at the reciept at all. I have had to point out 2 for 1's when returning items...I'm too honest to accept Boots giving me money in error...they don't seem to look at the points total either. So if your conscience is not bothered, you could easily return the gift sets and probably get them refunded without them spotting the 3 for 2 and keep the 500 points. Points equvalent to the refund will be removed from your total points.

However, they will demand the advantage card. I genuinely left mine at home when asking for a refund and have been told to return when I have the card with me. Is this in the T + C's for refunds?!

Thanks for the info. I would have expected them to refund as 3 for 2 anyway, but like I said, I wouldn't want to lose my points! I've managed to find homes for some of them as presents. I will probably give what's left to my sons school when they are next having a fund raiser.

Kerry :j

Just an extra thought, when people use extra points codes given out on this web site and take advantage of boots frequent pricing errors (myself included) then I don't think many of us could claim to have a clear conscience, & come to think about it, it's probably not very honest either

Ms-Money-Penny

Charlotte_ wrote:

If anyone missed it, here is the link again so you can be sure you find the right sets. Little Me Gift Sets

Have looked in my local boots couldn't find them, where in the store would they be located

Thanks

ben500

check your pm's ms money penny

burnham1

if you have managed to get the oral b toothbrushes x 3 for £7.98 and now want extra heads for them the packs with 4 heads in are normally £15, but at the moment have £5 off each pack and are in the 3 for 2 offer, so at the till they go £15 + £15 + £0.00 and then -£5 -£5 -£5 = £15 and if you have a 10% off voucher ,it then takes £3 off ( thinks you are buying 2x £15) and makes a total of £12 for 12 replacemant heads
my friend spotted it in our local small branch and we tried it yesterday, we got 6 packs and 3 toothbrushes for just over £33 when we used the 10% off voucher as well.
the receipt said we had saved over £119.00 !!!